


That Goddamn Dreaded American River Drive

by foundbyjohndoe



Series: Bert's Birthday Oneshots [3]
Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Crossdressing, F/M, M/M, frank's a real mf who goes 2 skool in a skirt sometimes, gerard has a superiority complex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:41:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27727621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foundbyjohndoe/pseuds/foundbyjohndoe
Summary: Featuring I’m-not-like-other-boys Gerard and Not-even-a-girl Manic-pixie-dream-girl Frank.Title from American River by Destroy Boys.Tagged f/m but like ... not.
Relationships: Frank Iero/Gerard Way, Mikey Way/Pete Wentz (Background)
Series: Bert's Birthday Oneshots [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2027575
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	That Goddamn Dreaded American River Drive

**Author's Note:**

  * For [I_BERT](https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_BERT/gifts).



There’s a girl in fourth period who Gerard has never seen before. She’s in the window desk that the tiny Nobody would sit in, if Gee remembers correctly. He made a point to never really pay attention to anyone in school. No one was worth the fucking trouble, he had decided as a freshman. Now, in his senior year, Gerard is starting to feel the consequences of knowing fucking no-one.

He swears on all his H-type pencils that he’s never seen this girl before, but Gerard also doesn’t know the last name of his three-year-strong lab partner Lindsey, so despite his mind racing to assume this girl’s an alien who mind controlled the class into having fake memories of her while Gerard was in the bathroom, Gee accepts that he probably just forgot she existed over the break.

Fourth period means English with Mr. Gallipoli, who is cool enough to accept Gerard’s work when it’s coated in paint but not cool enough to let him draw during class. That means Gee has all the time in the world (an hour and fifteen) to glance two rows up at the girl by the window. He looks for any identifying detail, any quirk, that could ring a bell for him, because she certainly isn’t that weird, kinda slutty, disney-obsessed, cakey foundation-y mean type of girl that infests the school, so he probably would’ve noticed her by now. Maybe she was an alien.

The girl turns her head a bit and Gerard sees a wedge of jaw through her shoulder length brown hair. She’s wearing a dark denim jacket with a black zipup’s hood flopped over the nape. If Gerard lowers his cheek flat on the desk he can see her leg bouncing up and down, the black tights she's wearing occasionally catching on the chair’s rust, ripping the thin material and revealing pale calf. He can’t really tell if she’s wearing a skirt or shorts or whatever, but he can definitely see the way her platformed docs grip on the floor when Gallipoli glances her way. She’s lucky he doesn’t call on kids who don’t raise their hand - Gerard’s sure she’d just dive right out the window. Maybe that's why she picked the seat. 

The final bell rings, and Mr. Gallipoli stands at the door to hand out this week’s free writing prompt. The class trickles out, but Gerard stays in his seat, waiting for the girl to stand. She’s pushing a notebook into a satchel practically bursting with whatever’s in there, and with her turned out to the aisle, Gerard can see her dark eye makeup and pink lipstick, stark on her sharp, pale face. The girl stands, swinging the satchel’s strap over her shoulder, and Gerard sees it's not a skirt or shorts, but a black dress with a bright white daisy print that falls to her mid thigh. Gee blinks hard when the skirt swishes around her legs as she strides to Gallipoli, quick and light, her head down. Gerard stands abruptly and grabs his backpack from off the floor, not wanting to be left behind by this random fucking girl for no clear reason he can think of.

She’s frozen by the door, clutching a writing prompt with both hands, hair hiding her face as she whispers something to Gallipoli before she’s off again, disappearing around the doorframe. Gerard doesn’t want to draw any weird attention by sprinting after her, so he just shuffles to Gallipoli, who's holding out a paper for him.

* * *

Gerard is literally running from soccer players. 

He doesn’t have to be - they’re not chasing him or anything - but Gerard would rather run through mulching Jersey woods than get called a fag in front of half his grade just cause they all congregate in the parking lot when school ends (a memo Gerard must’ve missed). It’s either taking off through the woods to bypass the Senior Blockade, or get stared at by kids who’s IQs don't warrant the level of thought Gerard is putting into avoiding them. 

Easy pick in Gee’s mind.

Usually he exits the woods as soon as he can’t hear the tell-tale cheerleader giggles, but today Gerard is feeling like sketching by the levee. He takes a minute to fumble around in his grey canvas backpack for his headphones and CD player. Then, with Pumpkins blasting and the player in hand, Gee sets off. 

He picks his way through the rotting forest floor, cringing whenever he feels his boots snap a twig he didn’t anticipate. Gee can smell weed, so he knows he’s going in the right direction. Hopefully he’ll be able to sit down on a flat rock and sketch interrupted until dark. The Nobodies from school sometimes end up by the levee, but never on a grey day like this. They’re more adventurous than the average student, but they aren’t at Gee’s level of disregard for their own safety. 

Gerard pushes his headphones off a bit and hears the hitching sigh of wind over water. He takes two extra large steps out of the woods and onto the bank of the levee. He’s not too far from the rocky area, just a little to the right. Gee turns, already taking a step in the direction of the rocks, and walks right into the girl from fourth period. 

They both jump back, the girl’s left arm outstretched like she was about to tap Gee on the shoulder. Her right hand is drawn close to her face, a smoking cig of something pinched in between her fingers. Gee blinks at her, and she blinks back from under her fringe. 

“Hey.” Gerard says, after an aching ten seconds where it becomes apparent that the girl isn’t going to speak

She just nods in response to him, lowering her left arm to her satchel as her cig wafts a thin stream of smoke. Her fringe falls over her face, obscuring her wide eyes a bit.

“Do you,” Gee mutters, “like, come here a lot?”. He’s really not used to initiating conversations. 

She just just raises the cig up to her lips, taking a small, shaky drag.

“Uh… okay well, I’m just gonna …” Gerard motions to the rocks behind her. She stares, cig dangerously close to her fringe. 

Gerard steps towards her and pushes her hair away from the cig without before processing what he’s doing. His hand freezes with his fingertips brushing against her cheek. It's not soft like other girls’ might have been. Gee wants to press his whole hand against her jaw, but he drops his arm and shuffles to the rock. When he sits down to pull his sketchbook out of his bag, he looks up to find her staring at him, her cig dangling forgotten in her hand. 

She takes a single step towards Gerard and plops down in the dirt, staring at him all the while. Gee turns back to his book and tries to draw, but it's only a matter of seconds before he breaks the silence.

“What’s your name?” He asks, snapping his head around to look at her. 

She gives him a dry look, smoothing out her daisy dress’ skirt.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Gerard says, face starting to heat up, “I’m not good with names. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed you in class before today.”

She snorts at this, his first snippet of voice he hears from her. It’s low, a throaty laugh that shakes her shoulders and ruffles her hair.

Gerard guesses he’s not going to get an answer. He turns back to his drawing, which, unsurprisingly, is starting to resemble the girl. Gee frowns. Something about the drawing is wrong. He thinks he didn’t make her shoulders wide enough. Gerard turns back to the girl o check, but she’s gone, only a smoking cig left in the dirt.

* * *

He doesn’t see her for the rest of the week. 

Gerard gets to fourth period five whole minutes early the next day, just to get the seat behind the window, but the Nobody is back, hood pulled up and his shoulder slumped against the windowsill. The girl is a fucking ghost as far as lunch period, and Gerard just sounded crazy when he tried to ask about her to Mikey. 

“There’s no one here who looks like that.” Mikey said, never taking his eyes away from his gameboy.

“I know,” Gee had hissed, “that’s why I’ve gotta find her.”

For all his reckless class skipping, Gerard pledges to himself that he’s not going to miss a period until he sees that girl again. It sounds stalkery and pathetic, that he’s so fixated on her after a single afternoon of creeping, but that’s kinda how Gerard is. He’s a high school senior who’s never actually ran the mile. Might as well embrace it.

He starts tagging along with Pete and Mikey on their smoke breaks to the levee, much to the chagrin of the two juniors (who Gee was definitely cockblocking, but like, whatever. Also ew). The girl is never there.

Gerard is ready to believe his earlier alien theory until two and a half weeks later, when, inexplicably, there she is, in the window seat when Gee walks into English. Her hair is bleached a yellowy platinum blonde, and she’s got a green smock dress on under her denim jacket. Gerard gapes for a second before marching right up to her desk and leaning in.

“Where have you been?” He hisses.

She just looks at him blankly. Gee’s mind kind of falters when he takes how much eyeliner rings her eyes, how pretty she looks. He opens his mouth, stupidly, like a fish out of water, but just then a gaggle of loud-ass junior boys walk in. Gerard closes his mouth, frowning at the girl, hoping she gets the message of ‘we’re finishing this later’, and goes to claim his seat in the back. 

They do not, in fact, finish that later. Gerard gets so wrapped up in drawing the girl that he doesn’t even notice class is over until Mr. Gallipoli taps his shoulder and hands him the last writing prompt. She’s gone, along with everyone else.

Gee groans.

The only girl at this school he’s even remotely interested in, and she shows up maybe once or twice a month. The most interaction they’re ever going to have is her glances back at him while he bores holes in her denim jacket trying to figure out how to draw her hips. Go figures.

He rounds the corner of the hallway, sulking a bit, when someone reaches out and drags him into one of the single stall bathrooms. Gee whips around, ready to chew out whoever’s trying to fuck with him, but a hand wraps over his mouth. Gerard’s eyes adjust to the low light and he sees the bright blonde. Immediately he stops struggling. 

The girl sighs, taking her hand off his mouth and motioning with her hand. Gerard looks at her quizzically and she huffs, grabbing his sketchbook out of his hands.

“Hey!” Gee hisses, but she’s already got it open, shining a handheld flashlight down at a portrait of her own face.

Gerard feels like a perv. He didn’t even know her name, and here he was, caught red handed with a sketchbook full of her face. 

Slowly, she flips through the recent pages, examining his random apocalypse scenes and full bodies of her and Mikey with care. Finally, she closes the sketchbook and hands it back to Gee. With a click, her flashlight shuts off and they’re back in darkness.

“I’m sorry-” Gerard starts, but he’s cut off by her mouth on his, pushing into him hard. He instinctively wraps his arms around her, his backpack taking most of the push into the tile. 

“Frankie,” she whispers into his neck after she’s detached her mouth from him, “that’s my name.”

Gee blinks. “I’m Gerard.”

“I know.” Frankie says, before kissing him again, pressing her entire (admittedly tiny) body against him. Frankie, Gee thinks. Yeah, that name rings a bell. 

Gerard remembers something and lifts his hand up to Frankie’s cheek. It’s rough, just like it was at the levee. Frankie pulls away again, and Gerard leans forward to push their mouths together again before he sees the look on her face. 

“What?” Gerard asks.

“Are you really so obsessed with my stubble you’re not gonna ask?”

Gerard has never heard a girl say stubble before. He’s kinda thrown for a loop right now.

“Ask? Ask what?”

Frankie rolls her eyes.

“The dress?”

“What about it?”

Frankie just stares at him.

Somewhere, deep in Gee’s mind, he’s still trying to figure out how her name rings a bell if he’d never seen her before this month. 

“Here I thought you were ignoring me,” Frankie mumbles, “Maybe you’re just a fucking dumbass.”

“Ignoring you?” Gerard says, “I’ve spent every class you’ve shown up to drawing you.”

Frankie laughs. “You’re kidding, right? Last week I asked you if you could edit my free write and you said no.”

What?

Gerard wracks his mind, trying to remember if Frankie had been in class at all last week. He sure as hell wouldn't have forgotten if she had spoken to him. On tuesday someone had come up to him, though.

“No you didn’t,” Gee says, “that was that Nobody.”

Frankie lurches back, ripping herself away from Gerard.

“Nobody?” She says, voice low.

“That's just what I call anyone I don’t know the name of,” Gerard says quickly, “so that's like, most people.”

“Y'know Gerard,” Frankie says, bending to pick up her satchel, “You’re kind of an idiot. Find me when you figure it out.”

With that, she walks out of the single stall. Gerard shakes his head, trying to clear it.

* * *

That night, Gerard shoots up in bed.

“Holy shit.” He says.

**Author's Note:**

> 3/5


End file.
